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Joq finished his beer and got another one. By half time, Joq was three beers in and clicking it off. They’d win—no way Fremantle could beat them in these conditions, they sucked in the wet—and Finn had already scored another goal. Joq wanted to be happy for him, but he felt the camera cuts between Finn’s beaming face and George’s carefully hidden one were taunting him.
He picked up his phone and resolved to get laid after all. There was a cute young guy less than ten kilometres away, and Joq had initially resisted his advances given his age. Now he was thinking twenty-four hardly seemed that young compared to Joq’s thirty-three, given his boyfriend was currently getting cruised by a twenty-one-year-old.
Hey, busy?
He hit send and told himself he was not going to think about Finn or anything related to it until he had to see their smiling faces when they got back.
Always got time 4 U baby.
Joq snorted and got his shit together.
15
“Did you see it?” were the first words out of George’s mouth when he got into Joq’s car at the airport the following evening.
“Some of it,” Joq said and turned to check oncoming traffic in the airport pick-up lane. “Nice win.”
“Win? We destroyed them.”
“It was wet,” Joq said as he pulled out.
“Wet doesn’t account for a score like that, come on.”
Joq glanced at him. George was looking out the windscreen, clasping the hand rest, a contented glow radiating off him. Joq didn’t know why it pissed him off so much.
“Yeah, well, do it when it’s not wet and I’ll be impressed.”
George scoffed. “You switch teams while I was away?”
“No,” Joq sped up and changed lanes as they got onto the highway. “I’m just sayin’.”
“What’s with you? Didn’t you just get laid? You hung up after two minutes last night,” George squeezed his thigh and it was normal; the teasing tone, the invitation to discuss it, to get the foreplay started while they were still in the car.
It pissed Joq off even more. “No, I did,” he glanced at George, who was smiling warmly back at him. Joq couldn’t have explained why he said what he did next. “Did you?”
“What?”
“Did you get laid?”
“Of course not. Jesus, Joq,” George said.
Joq peered at him. George was enraged and offended in equal measure.
“Sorry, I don’t know why I—
“I said I wasn’t…”
Joq could feel those eyes on him, feel the anger, but George didn’t go on.
“I know,” Joq said after nothing but George’s bursts of breathing filled the space between them.
Joq glanced at him. George turned in his seat so he was looking out the window.
“He’s too young,” George said, clipped. “He’s on the team.”
“I know,” Joq said again. He really wanted to add that Finn had a crush so big it was obvious from space, but he bit his tongue. He didn’t want to admit, even in his own head, it was clear George had the same meteor-sized crush.
“Nothing happened. Nothing’s happening,” George went on.
